You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This volume presents detailed histories of organizational conflicts in psychoanalytic institutes, based on in-depth interviews with participants of varied analytic persuasions. Difficulties that Kirsner sees as going back to Freud are closely detailed as they have unfolded across the years in the troubles of psychoanalytic institutes and societies in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The author's long and intense study succeeds in bringing together and laying open for consideration those complex personal and theoretical struggles that have plagued psychoanalytic organizations to a degree that at times seems like a fratricidal war.
While the author has clearly labored to maintain an evenhanded approach to the battles he records, the fact that most of his data derive from personal interviews means that some coloring of reports out of personal animus inevitably spills into the text from time to time. Nonetheless, the study provides the principal and thus the best source available to those who were not present during the conflicts considered.
In his final chapter the author draws personal conclusions and makes some recommendations. He sees the difficulties of organized psychoanalysis as arising from the twin facts (in his view) that analysis is not a science, and that it is not a religion. His study of the problems intrinsic to power structures serves as a cautionary tale that commands respectful consideration, while his personal preference for a fully free and open marketplace of ideas—despite its appeal—gives scant respect to the serious problems inherent in efforts to maintain standards of education.